Jon Rahm believes his game is in a good spot ahead of his bid for a second Dubai Duty Free Irish Open title this week at Lahinch.
Rahm is the highest-ranked player in the field at the second Rolex Series event of the season, where he followed a six-shot win at Portstewart in 2017 by claiming fourth spot at Ballyliffin last year.
The Spaniard has finished tied-second at the Andalucia Masters and a share of third in the US Open in his last two starts, with Rahm looking to continue that run ahead of the final major of the year later this month.
"Yeah, I'm confident," Rahm said in a press conference. "The Irish Open is one of the few, if not the only one, that I feel almost as comfortable and the support that I had last week in Valderrama and the Spanish Open.
"I don't know why, it might be my love for the country of Ireland, but it's something that I feel like the support is here. Every time I come, I'm just comfortable. It's a great feeling."
Rahm plays alongside Louis Oosthuizen and Matt Wallace for the first two rounds, while Ian Poulter marks the first of a potential seven appearances in eight weeks in a group with Tyrrell Hatton and Padraig Harrington.
"I kind of planned to have a quiet season this year," Poulter said. "We were thinking let's see if we can get to 20 events; 28 is on the calendar right now.
"Playing two tours, playing the majors, WGCs, looking at all of the good events you want to play, it's hard to start chopping tournaments away. It's still difficult to not play golf.
"Hopefully I've kind of recharged the batteries a little bit in the last few weeks before having another push again before taking time off again at the back end of the season."
Watch the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open throughout the week on Sky Sports. Live coverage begins on Thursday from 10.30am on Sky Sports Golf.